Abstract: We studied six land use types (grassland fenced for 5 years, lightly degraded and human-induced restoration grassland, medium degraded grassland, heavily degraded “black soil patch” grassland, sandy grassland, and oat artificial grassland) in Alpine Grassland of Maqu and analyzed their characteristic organic carbon and nitrogen contents. The organic carbon, inorganic nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N+NO₃^--N) and ammonium nitrogen contents were all highest in lightly degraded and human-induced restoration grassland soil with concentrations of 8.78, 49.44, 42.71 mg/kg respectively. However, nitrate nitrogen was the highest in heavily degraded “black soil patch” grassland where it reached 13.21 mg/kg. The reclamation and degradation depleted soil the organic carbon, inorganic nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen content. The soil total nitrogen showed a significant linear relationship with nitrate nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen. Both total nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen had a significant (P<0.01) positive linear correlation with organic carbon. The total nitrogen and inorganic nitrogen content in soil was found to be positively related to organic matter (P<0.01), suggesting that the decrease of organic matter due to reclamation and degradation might be the main cause of the decrease in nitrogen content of the soils.